PHUKET: The death of a man who apparently went insane and dived into a reservoir is the talk of a village in the province of Roi Et, in the northeast of Thailand.
Villagers of Nonrang, in Muang District, believe the cause of the strange death of 32-year-old Daorueang Chaiyahong was his sacrilegious antics at a company party on New Year’s Eve when he reportedly urinated on a spirit house.
Mr Daorueang’s lifeless body was pulled from Nong Ya Ma Reservoir, close to the village, on the morning of January 13.
There was blood coming from the corpse’s nose, but the body didn’t appear decomposed at all – strange, considering he’d been in the water for two days.
Mr Daorueang’s father, Phaisan Winthachai, told police that his son worked in Bangkok but was back in his hometown to celebrate New Year.
Earlier, he had told his parents that during his company’s New Year party in Bangkok, he had gotten drunk and urinated on the spirit house next to the venue.
Disturbed by what their son had done, on the evening of January 11 they took him to a temple to have water blessed by monks poured on him in a bid to gain forgiveness for his mistake.
But when they got to the temple, Mr Daorueang suddenly went crazy and started running toward the reservoir two kilometers away.
His family followed him but couldn’t keep up. He managed to jump into the deep water. They went in after him, but couldn’t find him.
A local rescue foundation sent in divers and two days later pulled Mr Daorueang’s lifeless body from the deep.
The family remains convinced their son had been punished by the spirits for his New Year’s indiscretion.
